On May 9th students at several UC campuses, joined by community members, will initiate a hunger strike. They will demand that the UC Regents sever ties with the Los Alamos and Livermore nuclear weapons labs. This blog will chronicle their campaign.

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Three weeks ago, hearing about the impending hunger strike, I was inspired to do something to help out the people in the state where I live. I began by quitting eating the day after May Day, sticking only to liquids (all sorts of liquids, including a few bottles of salad dressing per week). Step Two was to glean some of the words from your blog to make a short letter for two audiences. The letter is for both to the general public here in New Mexico and the employees at LANL who would most immediately be affected if the Regents would finally do the right thing (pull out of LANL management). Step three was my drive up the hill today to the management office in Los Alamos this afternoon.

I visited the Los Alamos Nuclear Security company office at about 1:30pm to ask how the 5 employees of LANS would feel about the UC quitting LANS & LANL. The very friendly and helpful LANS employee asked me how realistic of an option is the Regent's decision to quit LANL. I said, “It's a long-shot,” but worth the effort of asking and fasting. Completely unaware of the hunger strike, she was confident that even if we get what we want, their jobs would continue. We both agreed that the relationship between UC & LANL is “a feather in the cap” for both entities. She also indicated that even though her former employer (directly the UCitself prior to the change in contract) now shares the money for the contract with three other entities, the entire pot of money grew, so the UC didn't lose much, if anything. She wished me luck in these idealistic endeavors, informing me that she'd been there when she was younger too.

I then proceeded to inquire with the UCSD Engineering Institute one floor down regarding the relationship between LANS & the existence of their program. They were less helpful, less friendly, and actually prevented me from exploring the building further. (UCSB is specifically named on the building along with UCSD, and i'm still curious for direct experience of their office there.) I'm glad that three employees became aware of this group action in California before the security guard escorted me out of the building, making sure to let me know that i had “done nothing wrong” and where I could hang out (without incurring security violations).

It's now been two weeks of my liquid diet and I'm very appreciative of all the efforts you all are making in this important personal and political movement for nuclear abolition. Thanx for the inspiration!